'Alien: Covenant' Spoilers: The Cast on Those Shocking Twists and Deaths

Terrifying showers, android switcheroos and unexpected James Franco sightings. Those are some of the surprises that await audiences who dare to watch Alien: Covenant, the sixth film in the enduring sci-fi/horror franchise. The cast of the Ridley Scott-directed film got to experience each of those shocks firsthand, starting with Franco’s presence on set. “I really didn’t know that James Franco was in this movie,” Jussie Smollet admits to Yahoo Movies. “So when he was on set, I was like what the f— is James Franco doing here?…I’m being replaced!” (Watch our video interview above.)

Actually, Franco’s presence on set was part of Covenant‘s first big surprise: His character, the titular ship’s captain, perishes in the film’s opening moments, dealing a serious emotional blow to the rest of the crew, including his onscreen wife Dany Branson (Katherine Waterston). Far from being replaced, Smollet’s character Ricks makes it to the end of the movie…almost. In the climactic set-piece, an alien is loose aboard the Covenant and surprises Ricks and his spouse Upworth (Callie Hernandez), while they’re lathering up in a shower stall. “They’re way in the future, so they never saw Psycho to know that you don’t take a shower,” the Empire star jokes.

Covenant‘s biggest twist is saved for last: After believing that she’s made it back to the ship with trusty android Walter in tow, Dany discovers that she’s instead been in the company of the sinister David all along. (Both synths are played by Michael Fassbender, who first appeared as David in 2012’s Prometheus.) Not only that, but he’s brought along some of the Xenomorph embryos he’s spent the past decade creating. Making matters worse is the fact that Dany realizes the Walter/David switch just as David is putting her into cryo-sleep. “We don’t know what’s going to happen to us in the next one,” Waterston says. “We could be corpses!” Her co-star and fellow survivor Danny McBride agrees: “Not a good track record for people who get into the sleep pods in these films.”